Facebook's second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, is scheduled to talk with several Federal Trade Commission officials this week in Washington, according to industry sources with knowledge of the matter - a set of meetings that concern privacy advocates because of their secrecy.

The subject of the talks isn't known, but observers assume that a top goal for the politically connected chief operating officer is to push for the FTC to quickly wrap up its inquiry into recent proposed privacy shifts.

Two FTC representatives said the partial government shutdown meant they weren't allowed to respond to press inquiries. That included one from the office of Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, who declined to confirm whether or not Ramirez was meeting with Sandberg.

Several D.C. sources heard she would.

"The commission, like Congress, should be open and should be transparent," said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "It's fine for Sheryl Sandberg to meet with the FTC, but she should do so at an open meeting, so the public can know the company's position on issues before the FTC."

Politico first reported that Sandberg was meeting with one FTC commissioner, Maureen Ohlhausen, on Wednesday. The commissioner downplayed the privacy topic, telling the publication: "I'm sure we'll talk about privacy, but it's just kind of a general meet and greet."

The Menlo Park social networking giant updated its privacy policies in late August. The wording granted Facebook broad permission to include its users' names, images and other content in advertising. It also said that the parents of teenagers on the site had implicitly granted permission for the use of their children's names and pictures in ads, prompting a heated backlash from some users and privacy advocates.

The company initially said the new policies would go into effect Sept. 5, but it has delayed adoption. In early September, the FTC announced it launched an inquiry to determine whether the changes violated a 2011 agreement between Facebook and the commission.

The company settled charges that it had engaged in "unfair and deceptive" practices by agreeing to obtain express consent from users before altering privacy settings. Facebook also agreed to submit to privacy audits every other year for the next two decades.

The company has insisted the late August changes merely "clarified" its practices.

"Our updated policies do not grant Facebook any additional rights to use consumer information in advertising," Facebook spokeswoman Jodi Seth said in a statement at the time. "Rather, the new policies further clarify and explain our existing practices."

The privacy center's Rotenberg disputed that characterization.

"As clever as it is to describe it as a clarification, that's not at all descriptive of what's going on," he said. "They are clearly changing terms in a way that is adverse to user privacy."